Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

NSW fire dramas on opening day of winter

Fires of various degrees of severity have popped up across NSW on the first day of winter, with one destroying a Central Coast home.

The fire in Copacabana burnt one home completely and significantly damaged another on Monday morning, with one elderly man suffering burns to his hand, NSW Rural Fire Service says.

While investigations are still ongoing into the source of that blaze, another house fire in Grafton in northern NSW was believed to have been caused by light fittings, a Fire & Rescue NSW spokeswoman said.

The fire was contained to one room in the two-storey house, which suffered major smoke damage.

Smaller blazes in North Richmond and in Bondi have been extinguished with an increase in house fires expected in the cooler months.

"We see 60 per cent of house fires occur between May and September," the Fire & Rescue spokeswoman told AAP.

"A lot of that's to do with the fact that you've got people at home more often, they're using things like dryers, electrical heaters, electric blankets, but most importantly, because people are cooking indoors, we see a real surge in the number of kitchen fires."